Has anyone ever REALLY worked with you?

[Tom Petty]

There are a great many more outstanding reporters in this business than there are outstanding writers.

Maybe on your beat.

Not on mine.

There are lots of folks on my beat who can write interesting prose or a witty column.

There are about three of them who can grab a story between the teeth like a bulldog and not let go until they've made it bleed ink.

for the first time ever on this board, i'm going to disagree with you.

i put in with shottie on this one, which probably means i'm going to burn in heck.

Tomas:

The key qualifier in my prior post was "on my beat," which is NASCAR.

I freely acknowledge that the reverse could well be true at most newspaper sports departments.

But among the men and women in my universe, there's a deep pool on the beat of really, really good writers. There aren't many good, old-fashioned bulldog reporters on this beat. Didn't say it was universal, just true where I am.

And that makes me admire the few great ones even more.

that's cool, lono. besides, i felt kinda dirty disagreeing with you and agreeing with shots.

 

[pressmurphy]

In an era in which good editors are often bogged down by a million other responsibilities and bad editors are simply just evil forks, my experience has been that a lot of the best editing and refining gets done between writers.

But to a large extent that requires:

(a) Spare time for all involved parties.
(b) An almost total lack of ego by both those giving and receiving the critique.

 

[fremont]

You've gotta have a little bit of an ego (if you don't look out for yourself, nobody else will in this business, unless you happen to be a $100 bill), but you have to know when to put it away. One time to put it away is when someone is trying to help you get better at what you do.

 

[shotglass]

that's cool, lono. besides, i felt kinda dirty disagreeing with you and agreeing with shots.

Hate to really shake you ... but you agree with me more often than not.

 

[Tom Petty]

that's cool, lono. besides, i felt kinda dirty disagreeing with you and agreeing with shots.

Hate to really shake you ... but you agree with me more often than not.

you're killing me with the truth tonight, shots.

 

[forever_town]

that's cool, lono. besides, i felt kinda dirty disagreeing with you and agreeing with shots.

Hate to really shake you ... but you agree with me more often than not.

you're killing me with the truth tonight, shots.

It could always be worse. It could ALWAYS be worse.

(Check your PMs in a sec.)

 

[McNulty]

UPDATE: I heard back from the editor today.

And he liked the reworked piece, writing that it is, "Much better!" and has been moved over for editing. So it looks like I've sold a magazine/alternative weekly piece. Which is a nice step for me that's about 10 years later than I should have pursued it. Better now than never, though.

And the great thing is, I feel like that editor's thoughts on that particular piece are helping me right now as I work on a longer form piece for my paper.

 

[RedCanuck]

Thanks for this thread guys. I started editing at a new shop about two months ago after five years elsewhere as a reporter.

I always tried to be that guy who took the extra time to coach and mentor, and I promised my guys here I'd do that. Like so many have mentioned, there have been a lot of days when it's just style, grammar and go.

With this reminder, I'm going to go back, make some notes and fulfill my promise to my co-workers. Thanks for refocusing me.